A preparation of rabbit muscle D-glyCeraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase which dissociates reversibly at neutral pH has been studied. The system can be described by a dimer-tetramer reversible equilibrium with association constant of 2 X IO8 l./mole at pH 7 and low ionic strength at 5 ', When added together, diphosphopyridine nucleotide and phosphate shift the equilibrium toward tetramer (kz = 5 X lo6 I./mole). Either substrate alone does not produce an effect. Acylation of the enzyme by the combination of glyceraldehyde, phosphate, and diphosphopyridine nucleotide produces an irreversible dissociation to dimer. It is concluded that the dissociated species is the 6-aminoacyl enzyme of Mathew et al. (Mathew, E., Meriwether, B. P., and Park, J. H. (1967), J . Biol. Chem. 242,5024). p-Nitrophenyl acetive enzyme sedimentation studies (t a i -1 ER Lyulllurlulll. A C -T he molecular weight of mammalian muscle D-glyCeraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.12) has been investigated in several laboratories. Molecular weight determinations by sedimentation velocity and diffusion yielded values of approximately 120 x lo3 (Taylor et al., 1956;Elias et al., 1960) and 143 X lo3 g/mole (Elodi, 1958). Dandliker and Fox (1955) and Fox andDandliker (1956a,b)found 140 x lo3 by light scattering and 137 x lo3 g/mole by sedimentation velocity and diffusion. Using the Archibald method, Elias et al. (1960) found a molecular weight of 118 X lo3. More recently Harrington and Karr (1965) have observed 145 X lo3 g/mole using both sedimentation velocity and sedimentation equilibrium. Jaenicke et al. (1968) have found the same value for the native enzyme and have also concluded that the tetramer does not dissociate in solution except at extremes of pH, ionic strength, and in the presence of detergents.Harris and Perham (1965) have reported that glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase is composed of four identical subunits. Harrington and Karr (1965) have shown that the enzyme is dissociated to a monomer of 36.3 X lo3 g/mole in 5 M guanidine hydrochloride. The dissociation reported by Jaenicke et al. (1968) was also found to proceed to themonomer stage. Elodi (1958) claimed that KCN produced a halving of the molecular Medical Sciences (l-F2-GM-37.340-01). Conipt. Rend. 260,2077) have been performed to determine the size of the catalytic unit. As a dehydrogenase, only the tetrameric form of the enzyme is active. Esterase activity is present in the dimer and apparently also in the tetrameric state of association. Studies with the apoenzyme both by short-column sedimentation equilibrium and by sedimentation velocity indicates that the preparation initially consists of both dimer and tetramer. After longer periods, the enzyme further dissociates to monomer as well as aggregates to a high degree, Finally, a computation procedure has been developed for the determination of equilibrium constants for highly associated systems of dimers and tetramers (or monomers and dimers). In addition a method of accurately calculating the molecular weigh...